Which Dies?

[blazedawg87]

Getting my feet wet into the reloading world. Looking for .308 dies and right now PSA (doing an order from them) has both Hornady and RCBS dies. Same price so that doesn't matter. Which do the reloaders here prefer? Which yields the best results?

 

[b.a.customkydex]

If the horny ones offer a rebate on bullets, get them. If not either or

 

[Chuckdog]

I like the bullet guide feature of the Hornady seating dies. I use Hornady .308 dies for my turnbolt full length sizing/loading.

Hornady does have a reputation of sizing a bit on the large size of spec, so if for an autoloading rifle I'd likely go with the RCBS for the tighter sizing die.

 

[jcountry]

I like my Hornady's seating dies. But RCBS makes an expander I like a lot better.

I don't like Lee's expander at all. It has a strange "pop"when retracting the shellplate-and it expands crooked. Not sure if I got ahold of a dud-but I just returned that set. Much happier with my Hornadys in 45 ACP.

Lee does make a great die for crimping rifle rounds called a "factory crimp." Those are awesome!

 

[$nipertime]

I like the lee die also. It comes with the factory crimp die.

 

[Smiley]

I like the bullet guide feature of the Hornady seating dies. I use Hornady .308 dies for my turnbolt full length sizing/loading.

Hornady does have a reputation of sizing a bit on the large size of spec, so if for an autoloading rifle I'd likely go with the RCBS for the tighter sizing die.

This was my problem with the Hornady dies. Combine Sig Sauer reputation for tight chambers and my .308 would not cooperate with my re-sized brass. If it was fired from my gun, it may have worked, but I had a batch of once fired Lake City that just wasn't happening. Luckily I had borrowed the Hornady set, so I bought the small base RCBS AR series. So far they have worked great.